Dubrovnik or Zadar?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Dubrovnik if you want a compact centre you can cover on foot: more museums, a wider range of places to eat, and the longer warm-sea season, with 5 months at 21°C or more.
Choose Zadar if you plan to get out of town: far more protected land around it, much more park space near the centre, and a drier, hotter midsummer that touches 31°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dubrovnik leads by 4 points.4
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 49 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Dubrovnik leads by 13 points.13
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 25 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 206 | 143 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Dubrovnik leads by 16 points.16
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 33 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 8 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 17 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 100 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
Nightlife. Zadar leads by 5 points.5
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 25 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 128 | 194 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 110 | 139 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 72 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Zadar leads by 50 points.50
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 5 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 47 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Zadar leads by 10 points.10
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 6 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Dubrovnik leads by 13 points.13
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 31 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 48 | 23 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Dubrovnik and Zadar are level on 80.
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 80 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 48.5 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €138 |
Year-round weather. Zadar leads by 4 points.4
| Dubrovnik | Zadar | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 69 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11 °C to 29.1 °C | 10.4 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 198 mm | 25 mm to 117 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 2 |
Where they differ
Dubrovnik has roughly twice the museum count of Zadar and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 2, plus about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so more of a visit happens on foot. It also has somewhat more restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens.
Zadar is the one for time spent outdoors: 12% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Dubrovnik, and it has many times more park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Both sit on the water: the sea is 0km from either centre, with 49 beaches near Zadar and 43 near Dubrovnik, and water warm enough to swim in through the summer in each.
They are also close on weather and on going out. Winters stay mild, with coolest-month highs of 10-11°C, and in both the drinking places and the clubs are gathered near the centre rather than spread across the city.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants heritage on foot should take Dubrovnik: about twice the museums, a denser cluster of notable places near the centre, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Zadar's 2.
A traveller who wants countryside and days out belongs in Zadar, where 12% of the surrounding land is protected against 4% around Dubrovnik, with far more park space near the centre for days that stay local.
Families are better served in Zadar for that park space, though Dubrovnik has somewhat more tourist attractions near its centre. Both have 1 theme park within reach and swimming at the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so comparing the two on it carries no information. The €138 daily budget is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place, and it tells you nothing about which will cost you more.
No weather station near Zadar records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone; that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. Nor do beach counts say anything about how crowded those beaches get in August.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre). Zadar: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zadar / Zemunik (9.9 km from centre).
Dubrovnik peaks from June to August, with highs of 26-29°C and the sea at its warmest in August, 26°C. Summer is also its driest stretch, 54-62mm, and its sea stays swimmable later into the autumn than Zadar's.
Zadar suits late spring and September. It runs hotter at midsummer, 31°C, which not everyone wants, while September holds 26°C with 82mm of rain where Dubrovnik gets 143mm. From November both turn wet, Dubrovnik markedly so.
Getting there
| Flying from | Dubrovnik | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 20 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 20 m €63-108 DBV · 16 km | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 107 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 15 m €55-130 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 107 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 25 m €182-228 1 stop DBV · 16 km | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 107 km |
| ZagrebZAG | 1 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 55 m no fares ZAD · 10 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €66-134 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 10 m €45-192 ZAD · 10 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 40 m €240-268 DBV · 16 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| DublinDUB | 3 h 15 m €135-178 2 stops DBV · 16 km | 3 h 0 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 2 h 55 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 2 h 45 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 10 m no fares DBV · 16 km | 9 h 0 m no fares SPU · 107 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-09, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Croatian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 10 m | 5 m |
| Main airport | Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre74 non-stop destinations | Zadar Airport (ZAD)10 km from centre67 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dubrovnik | Zadar |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 41,562 | 70,779 |
| Museums within 10 km | 7 | 1 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 32 | 17 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubrovnik or Zadar somewhere new.